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Blue heaven: Baxter celebrates with Matt Smith after his 25-yard free kick helped Oldham to a 3-2 win away to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third roundLaurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Tony Barrett

Last updated at 12:01AM, January 24 2013

When Jose Baxter became Everton’s youngest senior player, aged 16 years and
191 days, stardom appeared to beckon. The excitement caused by his emergence
led to comparisons with Wayne Rooney, a previous holder of the record, and
there was even a glut of baby boys in his native Bootle who were named in
his honour.

“It was probably after Mourinho, not me,” Baxter jokes. His self-deprecation,
though, cannot hide the reality that there was a time when he really was
viewed as English football’s next big thing; a wonderkid of such potential
that coaches publicly marked him out as a